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Maryland Game Summary
By Kenny on October 31, 2001
FSU 52
Maryland 31
In a game that will go a long way towards determining this year's ACC champion, and against an undefeated opponent ranked #8 in the BCS poll, Chris Rix stepped up his game to a level highly reminiscent of another #16 at the Seminole helm in leading FSU to a thrilling 52-31 victory in front of 82,565 frenzied fans at Doak Campbell Stadium. In proving his doubters wrong, Rix went 15 of 24 for 350 yards, throwing 5 TDs and only 1 INT in leading us back to the forefront of the ACC chase. If these are the results we can expect whenever Chris Rix is doubted, then I say let's keep on doubting him. ;-)
In saying that we really needed to be a stronger running team through the season and most notably in my Virginia game summary, I in no way expected to see a performance like that in a pivotal game from a freshman. I have been adamant that Rix is well ahead of where he should be for a freshman, but in this game he played at the level of a polished upperclassman for the first time, something I didn't expect to see until next year at the very earliest. I still say that we need to get better at the run and focus on it more for the games where Rix is not on fire to minimize the impact Rix's inevitable mistakes will have on our overall efforts, but seeing him play at this level in such an important game does make me feel better about our chances in our toughest remaining games, especially given the mobility factor that he brings. I'm far from predicting a victory against Florida, but I do feel better about our chances against Clemson than I did before this game.
I have said previously that our problems on defense are of a much greater concern to me than any of our problems on offense and that definitely has not changed with this outing. It would seem that we are having a lot of trouble with any level of deception in an opposing offense's scheme and that we are having a lot of trouble with any level of speed on an opposing offense. We're going to see a combination of the two in a road setting this week with Woody Dantzler's show and that could prove to be very troublesome for a defense prone to giving up the big play. Our defense is simply not physical enough in their tackling, and not fast enough in the secondary to hang with WR's for the length of time required due to our lack of a consistently strong pass rush up front. How well we're able to correct the situation or work around it will determine our fortunes for the remainder of the year, unless of course our offense is prepared to win in early 1980's like shoot-outs each week.
Beyond the X's and O's of this game, I have to devote one paragraph to documenting the fact that this game was just plain fun. If you throw out all the pressure of the importance of the game and the expectations on this (and every) Seminole team and just view the game for what it was in the stands and this game was an absolute BLAST. We had 82,565 people in the stands going absolutely nuts in the decisive fourth quarter. As we took the field on defense each time in the quarter, it was serious "Rowdy Time" in the stands. Early in the game, I was really miffed at our crowd for returning to library mode in waiting for the team to inspire us into cheering. Several times I muttered that our fans (not the team, but the fans) deserve to lose this game for taking Maryland too lightly and for not coming full-on from the opening kickoff. But I have to say that we really turned it on in a big way when it got down to the nitty-gritty. We were pushed in a very big way by a strong Maryland team, and that made the atmosphere all the more fun. Maryland gave us a bloody nose early, and we were in a war. We hit them hard in return in the second quarter, but they didn't fold. Both teams traded blows in the third quarter and were dead even going into the fourth. FSU fans didn't know who was going to win this game. Even when we went up 45-31, most people in the stands weren't sure that was enough to secure the victory. That unsuredness made for some serious yelling and foot-stomping in the stands and provided a setting where our fans cared enough about an ACC game to serenade the opposing team with the "Na, na, na, na hey, hey, good-bye" song after victory was finally in hand. Take that as a strong compliment Terrapin fans, even through the "Over-rated" chants that came later. That our crowd made the effort to do that in an ACC game says you've come a long way, baby.
NEGATIVES
1. Chris Rix still had a few plays that could be improved upon, even with his overall success on the day. Here's the list of those plays:
--Incomplete pass to Atrews Bell where he flicked the ball off his back foot again, causing the ball to sail and killing a drive on a 3rd and 2 play that could have easily been converted.
--Floats a pass to Javon Walker into triple coverage and gets intercepted just before halftime. This was a poor decision by Rix, pressing too much in the hurry up offense. He's going to have to be more poised in the future on the two-minute offense, especially if it's in an end of game scenario where we need the points.
--Underthrows fade pattern to Talman Gardner in the end zone for an incompletion.
--Overthows Atrews Bell on an out pattern.
--Overthrows Atrews Bell on a flag pattern.
2. We had our typical problems covering RB's and TE's in this one along with more breakdowns in the secondary. Here are the lowlights in pass coverage:
--Michael Boulware was beat by the FB Lynch for 10 yards on a 3rd and 3 catch.
--Michael Boulware was beat by Bruce Perry for a 9 yard catch on a 2nd and 4 play.
--Michael Boulware was beat for another 9 yard catch by Bruce Perry. On these two catches by Perry, they were sending both the TE and RB into the pattern and Boulware was taking the TE instead of dropping him to pick up the RB. They were definitely picking on Boulware early, but paid the price for that later in the game.
--Malcolm Tatum was beat for a 9 yard catch on an out pattern and was lucky he wasn't flagged for interference on the play.
--Abdual Howard and Malcolm Tatum were beat for an 11 yard catch at the sideline by WR Williams on a 3rd and 10 play.
--Michael Boulware was beat by the TE for a 10 yard catch to help set up Maryland's FG before the end of the half.
--Stanford Samuels was beat by WR Monroe at the sideline for a 15 yard completion.
--Malcolm Tatum was beat for a 36 yard gain by WR Williams. Tatum was not looking for the ball at all on this play and he was lucky that he didn't get flagged for grabbing the WR's arm. The reason he looked clueless at the end of the play was because he stumbled on Williams' foot. That caused him to lose his balance and created the separation to allow the catch to be made. But his problems on the play started before the stumbling. Tatum is just going to have to get better for us to play to our potential on defense. I'm really surprised by Tatum's coverage problems and tackling success this season, as coming into the season I was confident in his coverage but worried about his tackling.
--Kendyll Pope was beat by RB Perry for a 12 yard catch.
--Our zone coverage was beat by WR Whitmer for a 13 yard catch and a 3rd and 6 conversion. I couldn't tell which player had the primary responsibility for covering this receiver.
--38 yards allowed on a screen pass to RB Perry. Travis Johnson, Kendyll Pope, Stanford Samuels, Bradley Jennings and Abdual Howard were all blocked on the play. Simply great execution by Maryland here. Chris Hope temporarily saves the TD with a tackle.
--Malcolm Tatum was absolutely scorched by WR Williams, but fortunately Williams dropped the sure TD pass that would have brought Maryland back to within one score. We were *beyond* lucky on this play. There were only two serious mistakes by Tatum in this game, but they were doozies.
--Bradley Jennings and Michael Boulware were beat for a 10 yard completion to WR Whitmer against prevent coverage late in the game.
--Marcello Church was beat for an 11 yard completion to WR Whitmer also against prevent coverage late in the game.
3. We suffered some dropped passes in this game that could have been very costly.
--Atrews Bell drops a pass on a short out pattern.
--Atrews Bell drops a sure TD pass as Chris Rix hit him perfectly on a post pattern. Clearly Bell was too busy holding onto the rope on this play and his hands just weren't free to make the catch. Sorry Atrews, but if you're going to talk about others, you have to play perfect yourself first.
--Atrews Bell drops a pass in the flat. Notice that the man doing the most complaining is also the only guy in this particular negative category. I think Bell really had the reality that you have to back up whatever comes out of your mouth smack him square in the face in this one. I'm happy to see that he rebounded from his adversity with two big catches late in the game. Hopefully we can now get on with the process of becoming a team free of finger-pointing.
4. Our ground game never really got going like it did in the previous two games. Maryland came into the game with the #15 running defense in the country, so it's not surprising that we struggled in this department. This is the sort of D that we have to run well against if we hope to maintain national championship aspirations in the future on days where Chris Rix isn't looking like Chris Weinke. In this game, we had 15 unsuccessful carries for 9 yards. Here's a list of our unsuccessful rushing attempts:
--Greg Jones with a 2 yard run: Chad Maeder with a block, Carver Donaldson didn't get his block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Milford Brown pulls and gets a block, Brett Williams steered his man to the outside. Two Maryland blitzers killed this play as we didn't have enough guys to block them.
--William McCray with a 6 yard run (unsuccessful because it came on a 3rd and 8 play): Atrews Bell and Talman Gardner both needed to block better on the outside, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a block but was pushed back into the play, Antoine Mirambeau missed his block completely, Milford Brown with a block, Brett Williams with a block, Javon Walker with a block.
--Greg Jones with a -2 yard run: Chad Maeder missed his block, Patrick Hughes with a block but his man got in on the play as Jones ran right into him, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland was beat to kill the play, Antoine Mirambeau didn't get his block, Ronald Boldin was knocked down, Brett Williams with a light block. Jones needed to cut back to where the only hole was and instead ran right into traffic.
--Nick Maddox with a run for no gain: B.J. Ward misses his block to kill the play, Brett Williams with a block, Milford Brown with a block, Antoine Mirambeau needed a better block, Montrae Holland needed a better block, Todd Williams needed to sustain his block longer.
--Nick Maddox with a -4 yard run: Brett Williams with a block, Milford Brown was beat, Antoine Mirambeau and Montrae Holland with a double team block, Todd Williams with a block. There was no room whatsoever between blockers for Maddox to find a hole. It wasn't so much a missed assignment that killed the play, it was the combination of Brown getting beat and Maddox finding nothing but a stone wall and no gaps in our line to try to run through. If the hole was there, I think Maddox would have gotten past the guy that Brown let through.
--Nick Maddox with a 2 yard run: Chad Maeder needed a better block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Milford Brown with a block, Brett Williams with a block.
--Chris Rix with a 1 yard run on a planned QB draw: Nick Maddox needed a better block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau and Milford Brown with a double team block, Brett Williams with a block. Everyone was again bunched into the middle and there was no running lane for Rix.
--Greg Jones with a 3 yard run: Patrick Hughes with a block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Milford Brown with a block, Brett Williams had nobody to block, Carver Donaldson with a block.
--Nick Maddox with a -2 yard run: Chad Maeder misses his block, Brett Williams was beat to the inside, Milford Brown with a block, Antoine Mirambeau blocked nobody, Montrae Holland with a block but got knocked down, Todd Williams with a block, Carver Donaldson with a block.
--Greg Jones with a -3 yard run: Chad Maeder with a block, Patrick Hughes and Todd Williams with a double team block, Montrae Holland and Antoine Mirambeau with a double team block, Milford Brown pulls and is late getting to block and gets beat to kill the play, Brett Williams with a decleater.
--Greg Jones with a 2 yard run: Chad Maeder misses his block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland pulls and gets a block, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Milford Brown needed a better block before going out to take a LB, Brett Williams with a block on the guy Brown left but couldn't get the proper angle. I didn't like our blocking scheme on this play.
--Greg Jones with a 3 yard run: Carver Donaldson was beat to the inside, Brett Williams with a light block, Milford Brown with a block, Antoine Mirambeau with a block (may have been a pancake), Montrae Holland with a block, Todd Williams with a block, Patrick Hughes with a block.
--Nick Maddox with a run for no gain: Chad Maeder missed his block, Patrick Hughes with a block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland needed to sustain his block longer, Antoine Mirambeau needed to sustain his block longer, Milford Brown with a block, Brett Williams with a block.
--Nick Maddox with a run for no gain: William McCray missed his block, Patrick Hughes needed a better block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Milford Brown needed a better block, Brett Williams with a block, Carver Donaldson with a block.
--William McCray with a 1 yard run on a 4th and 2 play: Patrick Hughes with a block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau needed to sustain his block longer, Milford Brown with a block, Brett Williams with a block.
5. Our pass protection had several breakdowns on the day, some costly, some not. Here's the list:
--Chris Rix scrambles for a 2 yard gain and gets injured on the play on a hit to the head by a Maryland LB. I didn't note where the breakdown came here to force him to run.
--Adrian McPherson entered the game (to an ovation that disturbingly sounded more like an impatient crowd that was happy Rix wasn't out there) and the Maryland defensive staff took immediate advantage of his "deer in headlights" look against an all out blitz by sacking him for a 5 yard loss on a 3rd down play. Todd Williams was beat BADLY to the outside by a DE, Montrae Holland blocked nobody, Milford Brown was beat to the inside.
--Another -7 yard sack of Adrian McPherson: Montrae Holland was beat BADLY to the inside by the NT. McPherson should have been able to avoid this one with his athletic ability though.
--Chris Rix sacked for -11 yards: Safety blitz not picked up and Brett Williams was beat to the outside by a DE. Rix needed to spot this blitz and quickly hit B.J. Ward as the hot receiver left uncovered.
--Chris Rix forced to scramble for a 2 yard gain on a play where Milford Brown used the "Ole'" blocking technique. This caused the clock to continue running when we were in hurry up mode before halftime and contributed to Rix's INT on the following play, IMO.
--Chris Rix forced to scramble for a 2 yard gain on a 3rd and 12 play to kill a drive. Nick Maddox misses a block in picking up a blitzer to cause the problem. Maddox really has to improve on his blocking IMO.
6. Chance Gwaltney has been putting up some solid numbers in the punting game this year, but he did a terrible job for us this week. He has shown no ability whatsoever to pin a team inside the 10 (or even 20) and that was hurting us in this game. We chose to punt from the Maryland 31 yard line rather than attempting a 48 yard FG into the wind, but Gwaltney put the kick into the end zone even after we took a delay of game penalty. Later, we see why we haven't seen him try a corner kick as he completely shanks his attempt at that, resulting in an 11 yard punt from the 35 yard line. I couldn't understand why we didn't try a 52 yard FG on that one with such a stiff wind at our back.
7. Our run defense was really pushed around in this game as Maryland ran for 214 yards and repeatedly enjoyed big carries to pick up first downs. In particular, I'd like to see Michael Boulware and Abdual Howard get more physical in their tackling on run defense. The lowlights for our rushing defense:
--Poor job allowing QB Hill to scramble for an 8 yard gain on a 3rd and 7 play.
--65 yard TD run allowed to FB Lynch on a dive play. I think I heard that this player only had 52 yards rushing for his career or this season prior to this run, so this was a big time blunder by the FSU defense. It was also a great play call by Ralph Friedgen to immediately take advantage of Bradley Jennings going out of the game with a minor injury. Jerel Hudson hit the wrong hole, but then Abdual Howard just did a terrible job of run support by running right by the man with the ball while keeping his attention solely on the man in motion on the play. I know we want guys to play disciplined, assignment football, but Howard has to be more aware of what's actually happening than that as he was totally unaware that the FB had the ball.
--11 yard run allowed by QB Hill on a 3rd and 1 play. Pope, Samuels and Tatum were blocked and Abdual Howard was late getting into the gap.
--Kendyll Pope was unable to stop RB Riley from getting into the end zone on an option pitch play as he didn't have good leverage at all on his goalline tackle attempt. Derrick Brooks would have made this tackle, so Pope still has a ways to go before fulfilling the potential he's being tabbed as having. Not disagreeing with the potential, just pointing out that he's not there yet.
--8 yard TD run allowed by RB Perry. Poor tackling by Michael Boulware and Charles Howard allow Perry to get to the goal line. Then an excellent job by Perry leaping over and through Abdual Howard and Chris Hope to get in the end zone. We can't try to arm-tackle a back like Perry.
--9 yard run allowed by RB Perry. Poor job by Abdual Howard as we again try to arm-tackle Perry.
--1 yard TD run allowed by QB Hill: Kendyll Pope was late getting to the QB on this one. Tough to stop from the one yard line though.
--11 yard run allowed by QB Hill an option run. Again, great execution by Maryland with their blocking. Hill is a player that makes a lot more happen than you think he could just by looking at him. I think his production far exceeds his real athletic ability, unless he just has deceptive quicks.
8. Adrian McPherson clearly was not ready to be thrust into the limelight in a game of this magnitude. This shouldn't really be a negative against him because no true freshman should be ready for a game at this level. His lone completion wasn't a thing of beauty and his incompletion was a really bad screen pass that was completely blown up by the Maryland safety. Montrae Holland did a poor job of blocking on this play as well (was a poor series for Holland).
9. Chance Gwaltney misses Patrick Newton on the fake punt pass attempt. I liked the play call, but poor execution doomed this play.
10. 7 penalties for 60 yards in this game. That's not too bad, but we did have some costly ones:
--Darnell Dockett with a stupid personal foul to keep a Maryland scoring drive alive when we otherwise would have had them in a 3rd and 20 (or so) situation.
--Todd Williams with a false start penalty.
--Darnell Dockett with an absolutely idiotic running into the kicker penalty to give Maryland a second chance at a long FG and handed them 3 points when the kicker nailed it after missing his first attempt. Running into the kicker on a 56 yard kick into a stiff wind???????????? Why????????? Enjoy your stadium steps Darnell. ;-)
--Block in the back penalty on Rufus Brown's fumble return.
--Javon Walker with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for having the audacity to enjoy his TD reception and share his fun with the FSU crowd. It's such a travesty when these players are allowed to actually enjoy themselves playing this game. We must put a stop to all fun on the field.
--Block in the back penalty on our punt return team. I didn't see who committed the penalty on this one.
11. Pitiful clock management by FSU in the final minute of the half (what else is new?). If we planned on throwing the ball and trying to score, I don't understand why we started the drive with a running play. If we were using the running play to see if we could spring something to decide whether or not to risk trying to score, then it was foolish to look to pass after the failed running play. Then we are forced into serious hurry-up mode because of the clock running after Rix's scramble and I think the excitement contributed to Rix throwing the INT into triple coverage as he was pressing.
12. Our D allowed Maryland to plow right through us on the opening drive of the second half. If we're going to keep losing these coin tosses, we have to improve on our ability to stop teams at the start of the second half.
POSITIVES
1. 82,565 in attendance. Great job packing the stands Nole fans. The silence early in the game was really annoying, but we brought the noise late to have a big impact on the final outcome.
2. Hats off (or is that hats on?) to Coach Indiana Bowden for his 320th victory, passing Pop Warner to move into 3rd place behind Joe Paterno (congrats to the new, albeit temporary king) and Bear Bryant. From welding goggles to safari hats, Coach Bowden never shies away from a bold fashion statement. Glad he lost the goggles, but I like the look of the hat. Loved the segment on the Bobby Bowden show with Gene Deckerhoff donning a safari hat as well. Good stuff, and one more example of how Bobby keeps us laughing with him, even with the serious medical situation requiring his wearing the hat.
3. Chris Rix was THE MAN with his best outing of the year, by far. If anyone had any doubts as to his value to the team and our offense coming into this game, his performance this week should serve to quiet those doubts, at least until the next set of freshman mistakes arises. In rallying the offense from a 14-0 deficit to a 21-17 halftime lead with two big scoring drives, and then in putting the game away late with three huge TD passes, Rix again was forced to put the team on his shoulders and was able to will us to victory. Freshman QB's should not be able to do this against this level of opposition. Now he has another big hurdle to clear in putting together a (mostly) mistake free game on the road in a very hostile setting, but given that he cleared the current hurdle with so much room to spare, we have to feel a lot better about his chances to take the next step in his development successfully. Game ball and then some to Chris Rix. Here are his highlights for the game:
--Nice 13 yard toss to Atrews Bell set up by a good play fake, and by our rushing success against Virginia.
--Carver Donaldson with an 11 yard gain on a quick out pattern.
--Javon Walker with an excellent 27 yard catch on a deep sideline pattern as Rix beat double coverage with a perfect pass.
--15 yard strike on a slant to Talman Gardner along with a roughing the passer penalty to give us another 15.
--16 yard strike on another slant to Talman Gardner. This pass had some unreal zip on it along with pinpoint accuracy. Rix has a cannon arm and already is starting to throw the slant pattern better than I've ever seen it thrown by an FSU QB -- not consistently yet, but the good ones are REAL good.
--Cro Thorpe with an excellent 51 yard catch and run. Thorpe electrified the crowd and showed shades of Peter Warrick as he picked up huge yardage after the catch. He picked up a devastating downfield block by Javon Walker.
--Talman Gardner with a 9 yard TD catch on a slant pattern. On this one, the pass was deflected by a LB, but Gardner did a great job to bring it in. Chris Rix was lucky this one wasn't intercepted. On second thought, perhaps it wasn't luck though as this pass was a rocket that went through the LB's hands and still had enough on it to get to Gardner. It might have taken a spectacular play by the LB to corral a pass thrown with such velocity leading me to think there was some skill on display here to prevent me from saying it was a totally lucky play.
--Excellent 56 yard catch on a sideline bomb by Talman Gardner on a perfectly thrown pass by Chris Rix, hitting Gardner in stride.
--36 yard run on a scramble, almost doubling our game total in the rushing category at the time. Rix showed some serious speed on this run on the outside. I think we are doing him a disservice if we harness in his running too much. We just have to really work on teaching him when to run and make sure we don't cross the line into discouraging him from running because his elusiveness and speed are weapons we need to utilize to the betterment of our offense. I'd like to see us design a few plays other than the QB draw to take advantage of his skills in this area.
--15 yard strike to Talman Gardner on a curl pattern.
--Talman Gardner with a 28 yard TD catch on a flag pattern. Another perfect pass by Rix completes the hat-trick for Gardner. Game ball for Talman Gardner for his 6 catch, 140 yard, 3 TD game. It's very encouraging to see Gardner finally step up and become the receiver we were expecting to see early on in his career. I look for big things for the remainder of Gardner's time in an FSU uniform. Hopefully he's has just begun to step up as I think he can be a great one.
--Javon Walker with a 22 yard TD catch. On this one, Chris Rix looked like a gunslinger with the fake pitch, spin, then quick flick of the ball for a TD. Great leap by Walker to make the catch. I liked Walker doing the chop to the crowd as the team seemed to really feed off the crowd and vice-versa at this point in the game. It seemed like Walker was "giving us our props" for a job well done in the stands, but the refs ridiculously decided that was unsportsmanlike conduct.
--Atrews Bell with a spectacular over the shoulder catch for 47 yards on a 3rd and 13 play. This pass was underthrown a bit, but Bell made a great adjustment to the ball and made the circus catch. You could see the relief on his face after he made this catch.
--Atrews Bell with a beautiful 31 yard TD on a flag pattern. While I admit to doing some verbal grumbling in the stands (not booing) after his drops, I was cheering quite hard with these two catches. I wasn't only cheering that these plays were made, but that they were specifically made by Bell. We needed him to make those catches. Congratulations to Bell for finding the end zone for the first time this year.
4. I'm very happy with the offensive staff working more than just a token play to the TE in the scheme of the offense. Not only did we get the TE more involved with 3 attempts going that way, but we did so by working a new wrinkle into the offense in the form of the quick out to the TE--a play we hadn't seen before to my recollection. It's very good that we worked to the TE on the outside because we previously had only tried to hit the TE over the middle and were becoming predictable in that tendency. Now opposing D's will know that they can't just watch for the middle routes from our TE's and that will help us down the road.
5. Our ground game didn't light things up out there, but they did provide enough of a threat and enough success in short yardage situations that I can't be entirely down on the performance. I am fine with us not looking to run as much in this outing because the numbers on paper coming into the game indicated that we could throw effectively on Maryland (especially with their top DB out of the game) and would have troubles running on them. It was simply a matter of our staff having a good gameplan for the team we were facing, and the success on the ground wasn't as important to our success as it will be in other games. I'm encouraged that we did well in short yardage situations and were able to have a few strong runs, but I still would have liked to see a stronger YPC average. In this game we had 17 successful carries for 106 yards. Coupled with our 15 unsuccessful carries, we had a total of 32 carries for 115 yards on designed running plays for a 53.1% success ratio and a 3.59 YPC average. The success ratio is not bad, but I'd like to see this get a little higher, even against the more stout competition we faced in Maryland's #15 run defense. With two or three longer runs, that YPC average would have been good, but needs to come up by about a yard per carry as is. Here's a breakdown of our successful running plays:
--Nick Maddox with a 4 yard run: Chad Maeder with a decleater, Carver Donaldson with a block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Milford Brown with a block, Brett Williams with a block.
--Nick Maddox with a 21 yard run: Chad Maeder needed a better block, Patrick Hughes with a block, Todd Williams was knocked down, Montrae Holland pulls but doesn't get a block because Todd Williams fell into him, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, couldn't tell if Milford Brown got a block or not, Brett Williams with two blocks, Chris Rix with an excellent block to get Maddox around the corner. This play was simply an EXCELLENT job by Nick Maddox reversing field when nothing was there to the left, then picking up some blocks and showing good speed to get around the corner going the other way.
--Nick Maddox with a 5 yard run: Patrick Hughes with a block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Milford Brown with a block, Brett Williams didn't get his block, Carver Donaldson with a block.
--Greg Jones with a 9 yard run: Chad Maeder with a block, Patrick Hughes with a block, Todd Williams with a block before falling down, Montrae Holland missed his block (I think), Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Ronald Boldin missed his block, Brett Williams with a block.
--Greg Jones with a 4 yard run: Chad Maeder needed a better block, Patrick Hughes with a block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Ronald Boldin was knocked down, Brett Williams didn't get his block.
--Greg Jones with a 6 yard run: P.K. Sam needed a better block, Talman Gardner with a block, Patrick Hughes missed his block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland missed his block completely, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Milford Brown with a block, Brett Williams with a pancake, Carver Donaldson had nobody to block.
--Greg Jones with a 6 yard run: Javon Walker with a block, Patrick Hughes with a block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Milford Brown with a light double team block but needed to hit a LB, Brett Williams needed a better block, Carver Donaldson didn't get to his block quickly enough but still got something of a block on the play. Jones absolutely destroyed a DB at the end of another MANLY run.
--William McCray with a 1 yard run for a first down: Chad Maeder with a block, Patrick Hughes with a block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau and Milford Brown with a double team pancake, Brett Williams and Carver Donaldson with a double team decleater.
--Greg Jones with a 5 yard TD run: Chad Maeder with a block, Patrick Hughes with a block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a pancake, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Milford Brown with a pancake, Brett Williams with a block, Carver Donaldson with a block.
--Nick Maddox with a 9 yard run: Chad Maeder with a block, Atrews Bell needed a better block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau with a block on one guy then a pancake on another, Milford Brown with a block, Brett Williams was beat to the outside but his man didn't get in on the play.
--William McCray with a 2 yard run for a first down: Chad Maeder didn't get a block but did clog the area, Patrick Hughes with a block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a pancake, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Milford Brown with a block, Brett Williams with a block, Carver Donaldson with a block.
--Greg Jones with a 4 yard run: Chad Maeder with a block, Patrick Hughes with a block, Todd Williams steers his man outside, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau with two blocks, Milford Brown with a block, Brett Williams with a block.
--Cro Thorpe with a 5 yard run on a reverse: The video feed went out on this play so I didn't get to see the blocking.
--Nick Maddox with a 5 yard run: Chad Maeder with a block, Patrick Hughes with a block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Milford Brown with a block, Brett Williams with a block.
--Nick Maddox with a 12 yard run: Chad Maeder with a decleater, Patrick Hughes with a block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Milford Brown with a block, Brett Williams with a block, Cro Thorpe missed a downfield block that could have gotten more yards for this play.
--William McCray with a 5 yard run: Patrick Hughes with a block, Todd Williams with a block, Montrae Holland missed his block, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Milford Brown with a block, Brett Williams with a block.
--William McCray with a 3 yard run: Todd Williams with a block, Patrick Hughes with a block, Montrae Holland with a block, Antoine Mirambeau with a block, Milford Brown with a block, Brett Williams with a block.
6. Our defensive line had a less than stellar performance, getting pushed around for 214 yards rushing and only getting one sack. But we did have some good plays from this unit to help the effort.
--Jeff Womble causes a fumble on a run by Bruce Perry, but Perry recovered this one.
--Huge pressure by Alonzo Jackson and Travis Johnson causes an incompletion on 3rd and 9 to stop a Maryland drive.
--Pressure by Charles Howard causes an incompletion. I'm pretty sure it was Howard, but not 100% sure as TV didn't show a replay and I couldn't see the number clearly on the live shot.
--Jeff Womble with a nice tackle to stuff a WR screen for only a 1 yard gain.
--Alonzo Jackson with a tackle for no gain on a QB run.
--Alonzo Jackson and Jeff Womble with a sack for -2 yards!
--Darnell Dockett forces a fumble deep in Maryland territory recovered by Rufus Brown. Dockett gets a bit of redemption for his costly penalties earlier in the game.
--Charles Howard with a pressure to cause an incompletion for a third down stop.
7. An unspectacular day for the FSU LB corps save for Michael Boulware's game changing INT and TD.
--Kendyll Pope with a TFL for -1 yard on a QB run.
--Michael Boulware with a devastating interception and return for a TD to send DCS into a total frenzy and tie the game at 14-14. Before this play, I was commenting in the stands that we need something really big from our D. My friend Jeff that attends the games with me asked if I'd like to see a three and out series and I replied by saying we needed something much bigger than that. Boulware delivered exactly what I was looking for on the first play of the series, making the adjustment to Maryland picking on him in the passing game and making them pay dearly. This was definitely one of the biggest plays of the game for us.
--Bradley Jennings had a nice pass breakup.
--Huge pass pressure by Michael Boulware and Travis Johnson causes an incompletion. This one should have been intentional grounding as the Maryland QB was not outside the tackle. He was three feet away from the point where the center lined up at the snap. This was a BS no call.
8. We had a few strong plays turned in by our DB's, particularly in the tackling department. The highlights:
--Malcolm Tatum with a big open field tackle on a QB run for a 3rd and 5 stop.
--Malcolm Tatum with another open field tackle to stuff a 3rd and 6 play and force another punt.
--Chris Hope with a nice interception followed by a spectacular return for a TD that was for naught. This was a pitiful job by the ACC refs in not blowing the play down from the point that Hope's knee went down. But then it was a good job that they got the call right in the end, including putting the time back on the clock. In the end, I'm glad it went this way because it was a lot of fun going completely nuts on Hope's return, even if we were deflated by reality afterwards.
--Rufus Brown with a fumble recovery at a pivotal point of the game, setting up our offense in position to score the TD to go up by two scores late in the game.
--Rufus Brown with an open field tackle on a flat pass to a RB for a 3rd and 6 stop.
9. Atrews Bell made a spectacular catch for 13 yards on a medium out pattern from Adrian McPherson for McPherson's only completion. It was a bad throw by AD and a very good adjustment to the ball by Bell. Even this solid play led to some grumbling from the crowd though as many were wondering why Bell couldn't make the routine catch on a pass from Rix but made the spectacular catch on the pass from McPherson.
10. Dominic Robinson had some really nice punt returns and I'm getting the feeling that he is very close to taking one the distance. Put your index finger about a centimeter away from your thumb and that's how far I think he is away from *starting* to live up to some of his incoming hype (at least with regard to punt returns). There were times in this game where he could have blown the roof off of DCS (proverbially speaking of course) with a big return and he was really close to doing it on a couple of them. Had he done it, a new star would have been born. Hopefully he'll be ready to capitalize on his chances next time.
11. Xavier Beitia with a perfect game, hitting all his PAT's (including one very long one), and nailing a 31 yard FG in the third quarter to tie the game.
12. Jared Hetzel recovers a fumble on a kickoff for the second game in a row. Great hustle by Hetzel is rewarded with two recoveries for big turnovers.
13. Jared Hetzel and Eric Moore team for a tackle at the 18 yard line on a kickoff return. Chris Hope later makes a tackle at the 14 yard line on another return. Then Kyler Hall makes the tackle (actually just was the closest in the vicinity and touched the guy) at the 2 yard line after Maryland's botched trickery on another KO return. Maryland's KO return team was a disaster for them.
This was an outstanding victory for the FSU team, far better than most of our fans realize. This game was a huge step forward for Chris Rix. Congrats to everyone on the FSU sideline for keeping our ACC championship hopes alive.
Players of the Game:
Offense: Chris Rix and Talman Gardner
Defense: Michael Boulware
Special Teams: Xavier Beitia
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